Exploring Hydrothermal Deposits with Multiple Autonomous Underwater Vehicles

This paper presents the results of marine survey of hydrothermal deposits in Okinawa trough area and Izu-Ogasawara ocean area using multiple Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (called “C-AUV2”, “C-AUV3”, “C-AUV4”, and “Hobalin” in this paper). We have developed the compact and low-cost AUV system for multiple vehicle operation and cooperative behavior in Cross-ministerial Strategic Innovation Promotion Program (SIP) [1]–[7]. The system doesn't require the support of dedicated research vessels because of the flexibility of the system. In order to explore the hydrothermal deposit sites, the AUV system obtains the seabed topography using multi-beam echo sounder (MBES) and the optical images of the research area with cameras. In 2018, the cruise for exploration of hydrothermal deposit sites with the multiple vehicles was conducted in Izu-Ogasawara area. The topography obtained with cruising type AUV (“C-AUV2”, “C-AUV3”, “C-AUV4”) can use for zooming up the position of hydrothermal chimney, and hovering type AUV (“Hobalin”) conducts the optical observation of observable areas. Through this cruise, we researched the uninvestigated area, and discovered the hydrothermal chimney from topography and optical images.